Walking Early One Evening
by Yours Eloise x
Summary: Jane Bennet goes in search of Elizabeth in the woods near Lougbourn, but instead comes across someone new. Starts just before the events in the book.
1. Chapter 1

Jane Bennet was not in the habit of walking out alone in the early evening. Such an hour of a norm would be spent calmly; indeed, she often found herself contemplating small matters, such as how she might bring her needlework to a satisfactory point that day where it might be put aside, and she could, unworried, begin to think about readying herself for dinner. Today, however, small routine was replaced by cause, as she set out now, not without some slight worry, in the direction of the nearby woods.

She was in search of her sister Elizabeth, who had slipped away on a walk several hours earlier, having hinted only to Jane herself in passing whisper, and who more importantly needed to be found before thought of food: if their mother realised her second daughter was absence, as she surely would come a dinner with an empty seat at the table, she would undoubtedly panic without a second thought, though she might claim Elizabeth not to be a favoured daughter. Jane wished for neither her mother nor her sister to feel any unnecessary distress, which would most certainly be caused by such panic, subsequent scolding and likely disruption felt by the entire household; thus, she had decided quietly that she would, desirably without notice, locate Elizabeth and beseech her to return home with haste.

Jane's consciousness reproached her for walking out alone and at such an hour; nonetheless, she had concluded that far less harm would overall be done this way, so entreated her legs to continue their walk, regardless of her own niggling discomfort. She just hoped Elizabeth would be in the woods as she had earlier implied. Jane was not unwise in supposing this to be the case: seldom was Elizabeth not out of doors, there half-masked by the nearby nature, which was itself locally epitomised by the small wood between their small estate and the next. Here, under star or sun, was a second home to the second daughter; a place where Elizabeth could walk to her heart's consent, due to that next estate being for a good while now without a tenant to make complaint.

Once she felt her own self to be fully immersed by that same nature as she knew Elizabeth loved, Jane studied her surroundings. She very much hoped she would soon catch a glimpse of her sister's dark pelisse and curls, or hear the course of the same woman's long strides not far off. Sadly, for now at least, it appeared she hoped in vain, for nowhere against the faded browns and varied greens of the old plants was her Lizzy to be found in sight or sound.

More small steps were taken and little calls of Elizabeth and Lizzy attempted by Jane, with the wish that this present sisterly separation would be shortly remedied and familiarity restored. Whilst her eyes continued their search, this ever lengthening period of silence and solitude tempted Jane's mind to wander: her needlework was now fully forgotten, even her sister briefly so and that earlier worry of hers seemed now to seek dominance in thought, to grow from niggle to ever present. Jane, though, if she could help it, would not allow herself to be unnecessarily uncomfortable or scared of the present situation: to be so would be to abandon hope for the sake of senseless negativity, and such a thing was neither right nor just. Her wish was always to avoid ill feelings and therefore, with that in mind, her searching eyes were once more accompanied by a small smile. Still the repeated reminders needed in Jane's mind came into effect too late to deter one singularity: one small tear, which lived only a moment before being wiped away to water the wood.

After a few minutes spent attempting to re-establish her attention primarily on the task of finding her sister, ahead of a closely approaching time when she would have to return home with or without her, Jane became rapidly aware of the sound of another's footsteps. It was an artificial rhythm that drummed through the silence natural to the wood; and clearly not the sound of Elizabeth's scissoring strides. Although initial shock caused her momentary immobility, shame soon stuck Jane. She was to be discovered alone and, she now realised, most probably on somebody else's estate – rushed glances around appeared to show an area of the wood unknown and the path abandoned. The unrecognised steps were getting closer; Jane Bennet would have to hide.


	2. Chapter 2

Behind a tree she tiptoed just as a figure of a man emerged into the clearing. Had he seen her? This he, this unknown man, who, through his plain apparition, had released reality within the woods and doubled the anxiety felt by Jane. She daren't look up to see; she just hoped her hurried heartbeat would not be heard.

Slow seconds passed and the stranger's footsteps no longer sounded. He had stopped as she had stopped. What was she to do? Jane placed her hands upon the tree's bark and tried to clear her mind. No, what ought she to do? Shyness and shame had caused her to hide; she must now do right. With the tree acting as a crutch, as support, she had Mother Nature as escort and could do this, she had to do this. She must make herself known and apologise, for she must surely be on his land, and then make her leave of this place.

Braving one hand from the bark, Jane curved slightly around the tree – her first tentative step from concealment and crutch – and cautiously raised her eyes from guilt, from ground to... Her breath caught in her throat: the figure that was formally but a barely glimpsed shadow, she beheld now as... she hardly knew. The wood's powdered air danced with sunlight low and lulling, and he appeared golden; twirling breeze of that air's breath caught and released gold leaf amougst locks, and he faded to and from fairytale. Slow seconds paused and Jane's heartbeat no longer sounded, pierced as it now was by some invisible god, pierced as her stranger's now was upon sighting herself.


End file.
